Low Double-Negative CD3+CD4−CD8− T Cells Are Associated with Incomplete Restoration of CD4+ T Cells and Higher Immune Activation in HIV-1 Immunological Non-Responders

Xiaofan Lu, Bin Su, Huan Xia, Xin Zhang, Zhiying Liu, Yunxia Ji, Zixuan Yang, Lili Dai, Luzia M. Mayr, Christiane Moog, Hao Wu, Xiaojie Huang, Tong Zhang

Failure of immune reconstitution increases the risk of AIDS or non-AIDS related morbidity and mortality in HIV-1-infected patients. CD3(+)CD4(-)CD8(-) T cells, which are usually described as double-negative (DN) T cells, display CD4-like helper and immunoregulatory functions. Here, we have measured the percentage of DN T cells in the immune reconstituted vs. non-immune reconstituted HIV-1-infected individuals. We observed that immunological non-responders (INRs) had a low number of DN T cells after long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART), and the number of these cells positively correlated with the CD4(+) T cell count. The ART did not result in complete suppression of immune activation recorded by the percentage of CD38(+)HLA-DR(+)CD8(+) T cells in INRs, and a strong inverse correlation was observed between DN T cells and immune activation. A low proportion of TGF-β1(+)DN T cells was found in INRs. Further mechanism study demonstrated that the level of TGF-β1-producing DN T cells and immune activation had a negative correlation after ART. Taken together, our study suggests that DN T cells control the immunological response in HIV-1-infected patients. These findings expand our understanding of the mechanism of immune reconstitution and could develop specific treatments to return the immune system to homeostasis following initiation of HIV-1 therapy.